Sunday, February 16, 2020

Jack of All Trades: January

When you think about volunteering you really have a handful of reactions to it. You are really into the whole idea of it and want to change the world, or you are unsure of it all together. There are exceptions to this. If you are really into something and you have a chance to help out you get really excited. Like me and the Tennessee Theatre. I have volunteered with them more times in the last two years than doing anything else. I am always really excited to help them out. Everyone else it's a bit hard. So, this whole year of volunteering at other places is a little intimidating.

Looking to all of the different places to help out was fun... actually stepping out of your comfort zone in order to do that is a different story. To be honest I really thought that this is going to be one of those things that Nikki and I always say we are going to do and never actually do. So, far I was wrong.

I am not sure if I have ever really mentioned Nikki on here. If I have it's been a little bit. I actually met her when I volunteered to walk in a Fight Against Cancer Marathon that my work was signing us up for. She signed up to and we both lagged behind in the back because we don't do running or jogging.


This is Nikki! This is us at the Josh Turner concert last month. We always have a good time when we are together and we see lots of movies and do lots of random things!

Anyways, we actually did it. We each picked out one organization or volunteer to help out in some way to each month of the year and we have finished out first month.

The first one we did for the month is Knoxville Dream Food Truck. I never really heard about them until we signed up. Knoxville Dream Center is in charge of the truck. They have been a non profit in our area for over 30 years. They feed the homeless every Wednesday night, and they have not missed a Wednesday in that 30 year span either. This branch with the food truck is a way to bring food to people in lower income families to help them to get healthy options every week. It's was super easy to sign up and there wasn't a need for a training program. We got there and we ended up being the only people who were able to make it who volunteered. The other people had some family emergencies. However, the Director of Operations was the one who drove the truck to the venue, and told us what to do and we helped him to get everything set up. He was really friendly and nice, and he was really passionate about what he was doing. He stayed a little while after we were done and answered all of our questions that we had. He even opened the truck back up when someone showed up a little late wanting food. He hopped right in and got him whatever he wanted.

He gave us a little bit of the history and how everything the with feeding the homeless and the food truck worked and it was a really great first pick for us to do! It really did get up excited about the rest of the year. What was also great were the people who were getting the food. Most everyone had been through the line before so they knew what the rules were, and what was going to happen. We just talked to them helped them to pick our their food options, and we just smiled and helped out where we could. It was really nice to see people get excited about fresh tomatoes and bread.

The other organization that we helped out with the Ronald McDonald House. This is one place that Nikki and I have helped with before. I did it during Girl Scouts and she did it with work. She called them and they said they didn't need any physical help at the moment but they were always taking donations. She asked them what the biggest need was and it was really good trash bags, to my utter shock. I never thought of trash bags being a really big need.

The donation part of doing this was something I thought was going to be hard. I always thing of donating as having to be something really big and crazy. Like raising thousands of dollars, or donating hundreds of your own. I learned that is not the case. Doing what you can really makes all of the different. I spent like 20 bucks and bought two boxes of the really good Heafty trash bags and a small thing of snacks and that was it. Nikki also go the same trash bags and some pots and pans. None of this was really expensive, or the crazy big gesture, and the coordinator was excited about all of it just the same.

After we went to the Ronald McDonald House we spent the rest of the night hanging out. We got to talking about how excited we are and how these two things really helped people and it didn't take hardly any time or any money. The Food Truck took 1 whole hour of our day and the donations cost us $20 each. We have gotten so much out of it already without putting a whole heck of a lot into it! It's really surprising for me so far and we have our next two places lined up for the next to weekends!


Anyways, I am not sure who reads this, if anyone, but Volunteering/ Donating are way less time consuming than you think. Just do a little bit of research, and change someone's day. This is where I turn this into an infomercial: If you want more information about these organizations see the links below!

Knoxville Dream Center:
https://www.knoxvilledreamcenter.org/

Ronald McDonald Houses:
 https://www.rmhc.org/

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